2025 Reading Challenge 23 Fingers Crossed
I grew up listening to music and going to gigs in the 90s, when that much criticised genre of music, shoegaze, was in full swing. I probably loved as much as I loathed in terms of bands, but Lush and their music, in my opinion have stood the test of time and it is great that guitarist and singer Miki Berenyi is now back and releasing, again in my opinion, the best music of her career with Miki Berenyi Trio aka MB3. So I was keen to give her autobiography a read and see how she experienced things from the other side of the stage.
The book begins at the Tokyo Olympics of 1964, tracing the meeting between Miki’s mother, a Japanese model and actress and her father, a Hungarian womanising journalist. The childhood is unconventional, and the marriage doesn’t last. Miki is born into an exciting world, with a lot of freedom, but also things a child should never have to go through, with emotional and physical child abuse from her grandmother and other “friends” of the family.
It is a testament to the writing that Miki never trivialises these events, but also through the quality and clarity of the writing, you don’t equate her with being a victim. A difficult life, but someone who lived through it and embraced positivity and happiness, rolling with the punches, getting up again, and being the focal point for creativity, excitement and support within the circle of her friends and family.
For musicphiles, it is perhaps lacking in the technicalities of songwriting, but it’s fascinating in tracing the band dynamics, especially between Miki and the other songwriter in Lush, Emma Anderson. Emma, unfortunately, doesn’t always come across in the best light, with Miki constantly trying to placate Emma and give in to her wishes, and it seems this dynamic, more than anything, contributes to the ultimate break-up, alongside the tragedy when drummer Chris Acland and Miki’s ex commits suicide. Miki tries to balance things out, painting herself as difficult too, a motormouth and very opinionated.
For me, the songs still stand the test of time, at least the best of them, but it’s been pleasing to hear and see live Miki via MB3 (Miki Berenyi Trio) write and perform new songs like Kinch, Big I am and 8th Deadly Sin. Reading this book definitely shows how much the band’s sound was influenced and on many times diluted by producers; the best albums were when they tried to produce a live sound, such as Lovelife, and then their songwriting shines through. Sadly, this only came together on their last album.
So altogether, this is a great rock biography that focuses on a time in the music industry that is close to my heart, as the subtitle goes, How Music Saved Me from Success. It’s a tribute to those many bands that contributed to a scene, received scant reward and may well in a few generations be forgotten, but not to the people that were there.
I rated this 7.5 out of 10.
TTRPG Thoughts:
I struggled with this. I called back to my first experience of Liminal, when Sue Savage introduced me to this game with the background of investigating a Goth band in her excellent scenario, Bad Blood, which can be found in the Liminal Casebook collection.
So books like this do provide background and minutiae on the day-to-day of being in a band, how the band develops, who is involved in making things happen, where the highs come about and why it can all go so terribly wrong.
I’d definitely add Fingers Crossed to reading material for a. a scenario set in the 90s, and b. a scenario that focuses on the music business, gold dust material, to making your adventure representative of the industry and the times.